Albion to Recognize 2014 Young Alumni Award Recipients

April 7, 2014

From space research to market research, city planning, pediatric medicine and mathematics education, Albion College's 2014 Young Alumni Award recipients represent the diverse fields of endeavor open to Albion graduates. A ceremony to honor this year's awardees takes place Saturday, April 26.

Andrew Beck is a postdoctoral research associate at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, analyzing data gathered by NASA's Dawn Mission to asteroid 4 Vesta. His doctoral dissertation focused on anchondrite meteorite petrology and the geologic evolution of 4 Vesta, a protoplanet in the asteroid belt thought to be similar in construction to the protoplanets that coalesced to form Earth. Not only has Beck won a number of awards for research excellence, over the past seven years he has published 15 papers in refereed journals. Beck was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where he supported Smithsonian outreach programs as a presenter at science-centered museum events.

Daniella Frank, ’05

Pediatrician, U.S. ArmyTacoma, Washington

Led by deep concern for the less fortunate, Daniella Frank spent two years learning Mandarin and teaching English in China before entering medical school. While a student at Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, Frank did clinic work with Haiti Health Ministries, spent six weeks in a public obstetrics-gynecology ward and pediatric malnutrition unit in Malawi, and returned to China to work with volunteer orthopedic and reconstructive surgeons. Now a captain in the U.S. Army, Frank is stationed as a pediatric resident physician at Madigan Army Medical Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.

Stephen Gordon, ’04

President, Global Visibility GroupRoyal Oak, Michigan

Steve Gordon is founder of Global Visibility Group, a world-class development, sales and marketing firm in the supply-chain arena for the defense, automotive, heavy truck, aerospace and construction equipment industries. The company expects to source and fulfill some $50 million in sales in 2014. He is also founder and president of the real estate management company Bright Black Investments. Gordon is a board member of the Michigan chapters of USA Cares and the National Defense Industries Association, is active with Habitat for Humanity and coaches an under-13 baseball team. Gordon has also made a major gift to the Albion Athletics Phase II project and has challenged his Briton baseball teammates to match his support.

Will Green is assistant professor of mathematics at Rose-Hulman, ranked for the last 15 years as U.S. News and World Report's best engineering program for undergraduates and master's degree candidates. A productive researcher, Green was recently invited to the selective American Mathematical Society Research Communities program in partial differential equations, harmonic analysis, complex analysis, and geometric measure theory. Committed to undergraduate education, Green advises mathematics competition teams and advises and reviews undergraduate research for publication. He serves on the alumni advisory board of Albion's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and has participated in the department's seminar series.

Jennifer Swindlehurst Howland, ’04

Community Development Manager, City of Grand Haven Grand Haven, Michigan

As community development manager for the City of Grand Haven, Jennifer Swindlehurst Howland oversees everything from planning, inspection and code enforcement to grant management, economic development, capital improvement planning and community redevelopment. She also serves as the city’s zoning administrator and is interim director of Grand Haven's Main Street Downtown Development Authority. Prior to her return to Michigan, Howland served as manager for the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development, a $4.68 million HUD Sustainable Communities program in St. Louis, Missouri, overseeing the project timeline and budget and integrating input from more than 150 regional organizations.